10 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE chap. 



of the moon, in her increase and wane ; the 

 rising and setting of all the stars, and the 

 inviolable regularity of their courses ; when,' 

 says he, 'they should see these things, they 

 would undoubtedly conclude that there are 

 Gods, and that these are their mighty 

 works.' " ^ 



Is my life vulgar, my fate mean, 



Which on such golden memories can lean ? ^ 



At the same time the change which has 

 taken place in the character of our religion 

 has in one respect weakened the hold which 

 Nature has upon our feelings. To the 

 Greeks — to our own ancestors, — every River 

 or Mountain or Forest had not only its own 

 special Deity, but in some sense was itself 

 instinct with life. They were not only 

 peopled by Nymphs and Fauns, Elves and 

 Kelpies, were not only the favourite abodes 

 of Water, Forest, or Mountain Spirits, but 

 they had a conscious existence of their own. 



In the Middle Ages indeed, these spirits 



1 Cicero, De Natura Deorum. 



2 Thoreau. 



